Services





     

Cap Job Plus

Over time (15 to 25 years in many cases), electrolytic filter and bypass capacitors (caps) begin to go bad. This causes various problems in your amp including poor sound quality, weak output,  hum or “ghost” notes.  Replacing these caps often makes a big difference in the overall performance of your amp.  In addition, bad filter caps sometimes leak current and can destroy your expensive power transformer.  See photos of bad caps below.

Consignment Items (Amps and More)

 

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At Andrews Amp Lab, we go beyond the average Cap Job performed by other shops.  In addition to using the best electrolytic caps available, we also replace a few other selected components.  Depending on the amp make and model, we target some of the low-quality high-voltage inter-stage coupling caps that have the greatest effect on tone and replace these as well.  This is why our cap jobs are called "Cap Job Plus".  Most amp manufacturers used some pretty crappy parts either to save a few cents or because good quality parts were not available. 

Prices for this service vary according to make and model.  The Sprague Atom caps have been the industry standard for many years.  Recently, prices for "Atoms" have been going way up.  As of this time, a Cap Job Plus using "Atoms" for most medium to large vintage Fender amps will cost around $145 to $170 depending on the model    This includes all filters, bypass caps (also Sprague Atom) and selected coupling caps.   Other brands of amps vary widely from as little as $65 to over $200. 

We're now finding that other brands of caps often exceed the quality of "Atoms" and we're currently in the process of switching over to some of these such as the F & T brand from Germany, Xicon high-temp caps and others.  After we deplete our stock of "Atoms", we'll be using other brands, (mainly F&T).  This means we can offer higher quality parts at lower prices.  For example, the same $145 Cap Job Plus that we can do on a Super Reverb using all "Atoms" can be done with F&T filters and Xicon high temp bypass caps for $125.  Both the F&T and the Xicon high temp caps are of very high quality.  We will still offer Sprague Atoms by request but we may not always have them in stock.